RECOMMENDATION OF THE 26TH GST COUNCIL MEETING

Kindly find below the RECOMMENDATION OF THE 26TH GST COUNCIL MEETING:

 

  1. E-WAY BILL

In the 26th GST Council meeting, it was expected that the council will announce the date of applicability for E Way Bill as the necessary amendments in the E Way bill rules were already made just before 2 days of the meeting.

Thereby, the Council has recommended the introduction of e-way bill for inter-State movement of goods across the country from 01 April 2018.

For intra-State movement of goods, e-way bill system will be introduced with effect from a date to be announced in a phased manner but not later than 01 June, 2018.

For those states who have introduced E Way Bill for intrastate moment of goods as on 1st February, 2018 will be divided in four groups.

The first group will make applicable the E Way Bill rules from 15th April, 2018 (The states in the first group will be notified on 7th April 2018) and then the second group and so on. It is expected that this process will be completed by end of April 2018 in a staggered manner.

The major amendments in the E Way Bill rules as compared to earlier are as below:

  1. E-way bill is required to be generated only where the value of the consignment exceeds Rs. 50000/-. For smaller value consignments, no e-way bill is required.
  2. The provisions of sub-rule (7) of Rule 138 will be notified from a later date. Therefore, at present there is no requirement to generate e-way bill where an individual consignment value is less than Rs. 50,000/-, even if the transporter is carrying goods of more than Rs. 50,000/- in a single conveyance.
  3. Value of exempted goods has been excluded from value of the consignment, for the purpose of e-way bill generation.
  4. Public conveyance has also been included as a mode of transport and the responsibility of generating e-waybill in case of movement of goods by public transport would be that of the consignor or consignee.
  5. Railways has been exempted from generation and carrying of e-way bill with the condition that without the production of e-way bill, railways will not deliver the goods to the recipient. But railways are required to carry invoice or delivery challan etc.
  6. Time period for the recipient to communicate his acceptance or rejection of the consignment would be the validity period of the concerned e-way bill or 72 hours, whichever is earlier.
  7. In case of movement of goods on account of job-work, the registered job worker can also generate e-way bill.
  8. Consignor can authorize the transporter, courier agency and e-commerce operator to fill PART-A of e-waybill on his behalf.
  9. Movement of goods from the place of consignor to the place of transporter up to a distance of 50 Km [increased from 10 km] does not require filling of PART-B of e-way bill. They have to generate PART-A of E-way bill. (Kindly note it is from the place of consignor to the place of transporter and not like from the place of consignor to place of consignee. Also exemption is for Part B only, Part A is mandatory).
  10. Extra validity period has been provided for Over Dimensional Cargo (ODC).
  11. If the goods cannot be transported within the validity period of the e-way bill, the transporter may extend the validity period in case of transhipment or in case of circumstances of an exceptional nature.
  12. Validity of one day will expire at midnight of the day immediately following the date of generation of e-waybill.
  13. Once verified by any tax officer, the same conveyance will not be subject to a second check in any State or Union territory, unless and until, specific information for the same is received.
  14. In case of movement of goods by railways, airways and waterways, the e-way bill can be generated even after commencement of movement of goods.
  15. Movement of goods on account of Bill-To-Ship-To supply will be handled through the capturing of place of dispatch in PART-A of e-way bill.
  16. where the goods are being transported up to a distance of twenty kilometers from the place of the business of the consignor to a weighbridge for weighment or from the weighbridge back to the place of the business of the said consignor subject to the condition that the movement of goods is accompanied by a delivery challan issued in accordance with rule 55.

 

  1. RETURNS

The present system of filing of GSTR 3B and GSTR 1 is extended for another three months i.e., April to June, 2018 till the new return system is finalized.

 

  1. REVERSE CHARGE MECHANISM

The liability to pay tax on reverse charge basis as covered u/s 9(4) of CGST Act, 2017 and Section 5(4) of the IGST Act, 2018 has been deferred till 30.06.2018 (i.e. on transactions between unregistered supplier & registered recipient). Earlier it was deferred till 31.03.2018. Now the same has been further deferred till 30.06.2018.

 

  1. TDS/TCS

The provisions for deduction of tax at source (TDS) under section 51 of the CGST Act and collection of tax at source (TCS) under section 52 of the CGST Act shall remain suspended till 30.06.2018.

 

  1. GRIEVANCE REDRESSAL MECHANISM

GST implementation Committee (GIC) has been tasked with the work of redressing the grievances caused to the taxpayers arising out of IT glitches.

 

  1. EXPORTERS

The GST Council in its 26th meeting held decided to extend the available tax exemptions on imported goods for a further 6 months beyond 31.03.2018. Thus, exporters presently availing various export promotion schemes can now continue to avail such exemptions on their imports up to 01.10.2018, by which time an e-Wallet scheme is expected to be in place to continue the benefits in future.

 

  1. DATA ANALYTICS

Examination of data of returns filed by tax payers have revealed:

  1. That there is variance between the amount of IGST & Compensation Cess paid by importers at Customs ports and input tax credit of the same claimed in GSTR-3B.
  2. Also there are major data gaps between self-declared liability in FORM GSTR-1 and FORM GSTR-3B.

Council has directed for further analysis of the discrepancies and to initiate appropriate action. Hence it is suggested that one has to be very careful while filing the returns and ensure that there are no unexplainable mismatches between GSTR-3B & GSTR 1.